With a long look at Pascal, Sykes fitted in the final key that clicked smoothly in its lock.
“You gave it to her,” David said to Pascal in a very small voice.
Pascal put an arm around him and didn’t say anything.
43
“Thank you,” Sykes said quietly, watching the segments of the ball fall open in his hands. “Just let us know what we’re supposed to do next.”
“We’ll know,” Marley said. “It will show us.”
Inside the ball lay yet another box, this one deep purple velvet and oval. Willing his hands to be steady, Sykes picked it up and snapped it open.
Empty!
He looked at the ring of blank faces, watched horror fill every pair of eyes.
“It’s been stolen,” Sykes said.
44
“Whatever it takes, we’re getting out of here,” Poppy said. She walked the edges of the padded room, pressing the walls. “How did you find me?”
Poppy looked over her shoulder at Wazoo who sat on the floor staring straight ahead—lost in thought.
“Wazoo?” Poppy said. “How did—”
“I was going to see if I could find you—to talk to you about—something. I was almost at Fortunes and a van came past. You were in it.”
Poppy frowned at her. “I was on the floor in the back. You couldn’t have seen me.”
“Show me the velvet bag around your neck.”
Patting absently, Poppy closed her fingers over the bag and pulled it from the neck of her dress.
“That’s how I knew. I felt you. It sent your fear to me, and when the van slowed down I jumped on the back and held on.”
“And nobody tried to stop you?”
“In the Quarter at night?” Wazoo laughed. “The bumper dropped down but that only made it easier for me to balance and hold on. That and our connection. You held me to you. You have to get Sykes to come. He’ll bring Nat…and all the others.”
Poppy leaned against the wall. “I heard him,” she said, dejected. “I called Sykes and he answered. Then I couldn’t concentrate and he went away.”
“You can talk to him?” Wazoo stood up, her dark eyes blazing. “You will talk to him. You’re going to guide him here.”
“I don’t know where we are.”
“I do. Concentrate. Speak to him.”
“You’re psychic,” Poppy said. “You try, too.”
“Psychic but not telepathic.”
Turning away, afraid to fail, Poppy reached the door. She peered through the window and recoiled. “There’s someone out there. I think he’s dead.”
As she watched, the figure sprawled on the floor of an otherwise empty corridor shrank. It coiled like a spent firework and Poppy saw little pieces break off. They were hairy and she realized this was the shape-shifting spider they had seen earlier.
“Wazoo,” Poppy said urgently, “I think they’re in trouble. I think they’re being overtaken by some sickness.”
“Let me see.” Only Wazoo wasn’t tall enough to see through the window.
“Here, jump.” Poppy caught her under the arms and hoisted Wazoo.
She sailed past the window and rose all the way to the ceiling. Grabbing her before she could fall, Poppy lowered her carefully. “It isn’t that bouncy,” she said, shaken.
Wazoo screwed up her eyes to study Poppy. “I didn’t even get to jump, girl. You threw me up there. You don’t know your own strength.”
Turning back to the door, Poppy slid her fingers under the padded edge to peel a piece back. The entire door covering stripped away.
“Holy Halloween,” Wazoo said.
Poppy cleared her throat. “I’ve always had strong hands.”
“That’s more than strong hands.”
There was no knob on the inside of the door. Expecting nothing, Poppy worked the fingertips of her right hand into the crack between the door and the jamb at what she thought was the level of the bolt.
A deafening sound of metal tearing made her stop. She turned around to Wazoo who said, “You’re gaping. It’s not pretty.”
The edge of the door had buckled and they could both see where the wide bolt slid into its deep slot.
“Can you get at it?” Wazoo said.
Hooking two fingers under the steel bar of the bolt, Poppy worked to get enough purchase to slide it undone.
The entire bolt snapped free, the sound like a bullet in a confined space, and Poppy grabbed at her hand muttering, “Ouch, ouch, ouch.” The ring Pascal had given her had dug into her finger.
She shook off the discomfort and they eased open the door.
“Where is everyone?” Wazoo whispered. She looked at what was not a small pile of spider detritus and sucked in a breath. “What did it do, eat itself?”
“Anything’s possible with this group,” Poppy said.
“Now we find a hiding place and you start talking to that scrumptious man of yours.”
Poppy looked at Wazoo and felt helpless.
“Or I can just send you running through this place tearing everything up,” Wazoo said. “Shouldn’t be a problem for you.”
“I want to know what’s going on here before I start knocking my brains out.”
She slipped from the room with Wazoo behind her. They passed through empty corridor after empty corridor until Poppy heard a mounting sound in the distance and flattened herself to the wall. She shot out an arm to halt Wazoo who immediately yelped.
“What?” Poppy said.
“You nearly knocked me out,” Wazoo said, rubbing the back of her head. “I hit the wall.”
“Sorry. Can you hear the noise?”
“Sounds like a riot,” Wazoo said. “I think it’s coming from that great hall.”
They crept around another corner but drew back again. Pouring from somewhere they couldn’t see, a whole army of people, or part people, part bizarre creatures in many cases, advanced through the massive double doors Poppy recognized as the entrance to the hall.
“I want to see in there,” Poppy said.
“Not until we establish contact with Sykes, or anyone else you can talk to.”
“They’re coming out again,” Poppy squeaked.
“Start talking.”
Slipping out of sight of the jostling Embran, Poppy slid to the floor with her back to the wall and tried to concentrate. Sykes, I need you. We need you. Wazoo is with me.
Wazoo knew enough to sit and listen to Poppy’s silence.
Poppy heard nothing and began to sigh, letting her head hang forward.
“Dope,” Wazoo said. “You don’t just give up. Keep at it.”
Poppy?
She jumped and her eyes flew wide open. Sykes?
Where are you?
“Where are we?” she asked Wazoo.
“In a compound by the river. A big warehouse. Near Algiers Point. There’s a building with C & O Mills on the front. It’s written all the way across. The compound is huge. We’re in the big building.”
Very carefully, Poppy kept still, tried to relax, and repeated Wazoo’s directions.
She waited for a response but none came.
Her eyes felt moist.
“No losing your nerve now,” Wazoo said. “Answer me one thing first. Do you think Nat and I should try to be together? That’s what I was coming to ask you.”
“Of course,” Poppy said.
Wazoo nodded. “Get back on the job, then. Concentrate. Go inside your mind or wherever it is you talk to each other.”
Sykes, please hear me. Poppy strained, her head beginning to ache. Again she gave him their coordinates. And Wazoo’s with me.
Don’t let it be too faint for him to hear this time.
Good. Now, be quiet until you hear from me. Stay hidden. No heroics and that’s an order. I love you.
Poppy almost collapsed. She told Wazoo what Sykes had said.
“I told you that was one outstanding example of the male of the species,” Wazoo said. “Too bad he saw you first.
I’d have snapped him up.”
“Nat—”
“Not if I’d already seen Nat, of course. We gotta make sure a bunch of those turkeys don’t suddenly come on us. But I want to see what they’re all up to.”
“How’s your sense of direction?”
“Fantastic. We’ll see if we can get around from the other side of the hall. There has to be another way out of this place.”
Crouched, they began to move again, away from the front of the building. “If we could get outside our chances of not being seen might be better,” Poppy said.
“You’re not hearing her right,” Nat said, for Sykes’s ears only. “What would Wazoo be doing with her?”
“And I should know?” Sykes stared at him. They were driving in Nat’s unmarked car toward the waterfront. “She told me twice, so I don’t think she’s making it up.”
He looked in the rearview mirror. Spread out behind them, more vehicles converged on the directions Sykes had given them.
“That place always looks well maintained,” Nat said. “Polite watchmen. Trucks coming and going. No problems. Never a call about any trouble. I hope they’ve got the right place.”
“They have,” Sykes said, and he was convinced.
He flexed his hands and rotated his shoulders. The sensation traveling through him was new. If he didn’t know it was impossible he’d say they had somehow come upon the Ultimate Power even if they hadn’t seen it. He felt invincible—and his nerves leaped about at the same time. He wanted to see Poppy, to touch her.
Sykes. There are many, many of them here. They don’t all look the same. Can you hear me?
Yes!
Something’s gone really wrong with them. They’re dying, I think, but a lot of them are still very strong. Let Wazoo and me try to find our own way out. It’s too dangerous for you to come in here.
He looked sideways at Nat. Stay out of sight. Don’t try being heroes.
“They’re telling us what to do,” Poppy told Wazoo.
“And that surprises you?”
“There’s a door ahead. I don’t see anyone.”
When they reached it and pushed lightly, the door cracked open and the moist warmth of the night hit their faces. The sound of many shouting voices came from the distance. Poppy inclined her head at Wazoo and they slipped outside.
Dodging from one hiding place to another, relying on shadows, they made their way to a back corner of the building, then, very cautiously, around the side.
Wazoo pulled Poppy’s arm and whispered in her ear. “Those big drums over there. If we could get behind them we could see the front of the building and stay out of sight.”
Nodding, Poppy set off, racing to a stack of crates, then a Dumpster, a parked truck. The drums were actually just beyond the side of the warehouse and Poppy knew the last leg to get there would be dangerous.
I wish we could be invisible like you can, she communicated without thinking.
What are you doing?
Getting where we can see what they’re doing. And we’re going no matter what you say, so don’t try ordering us around.
She listened to heavy silence and knew he was deciding what to say next.
We’ll talk about this later, he said. Put your arms around each other and hold on tight. Look at the place you want to be and put your faces on each other’s shoulders. Do it now.
Poppy grabbed Wazoo. “Don’t ask,” she said, holding her close. “Keep your face down on my shoulder.”
There was no sensation, other than disappointment.
Poppy opened her eyes and almost gasped aloud. They were next to the drums. Wazoo caught her hand and hurried them both completely out of sight.
“Neat trick,” Wazoo said.
“It was Sykes.”
“Surprise, surprise. Now we can see everything. Look between these things.”
Poppy peered between the oil drums at a gathering in front of the warehouse.
Under the standard lights it was Zibock who commanded the center of the scene, his carrot-colored hair aflame, the gold on his hands flashing. He stood twice as tall as the rest with his silver robes shining almost white. And he bellowed at all around him.
“Now is the time to test you all. We must call in all our resources and correct whatever we did not expect to encounter.”
A blue glow, shot with green, illuminated the space around Poppy. She blinked, expecting her eyes to react, but there was no discomfort. “Do you see that?” she asked Wazoo.
“He is a pompous bag of disgusting waste,” Wazoo said, staring through at Zibock.
“No, this. The light.”
Wazoo looked at her. “Out there you mean.” She pointed toward the overhead lights.
“Okay.” So Wazoo couldn’t see it. The colors radiated out from Poppy and stained everything around her.
Another vehicle arrived, this a familiar, long black limousine. Ward erupted from inside and marched forward, only hesitating when he saw the masses in the compound. He frowned around. “Who are they?”
“Ward,” Poppy said. “I thought he was tied in with Zibock.”
“They are my subjects,” Zibock thundered. “Why are you here? You were to wait until I contacted you again.”
“Wait while I was blamed for the murders of women I hadn’t touched?” Ward said. “Hadn’t killed?”
“Sounds like there’s a distinction to me,” Wazoo said quietly.
Zibock had no immediate answer. The gaggle had grown much more quiet.
“He isn’t worthy!” Bart got from behind the wheel of the limo. “I am the one who should be your representative. He makes mistakes. Let me go back and wait in his place, Protector.”
“You are Embran,” Zibock said in a low, fearsome voice. “I need a human as a placekeeper until I can take over the place of power. We are to get him elected—”
“He never will be,” Bart said. “They have released him only on what they call a bond. I made sure both women were found dead at his home. Joan helped me with the second woman.”
“Shoot,” Poppy muttered. “They’re all crazy. We gotta get out of here.”
Ward launched himself at Bart and began to fight with his fists while the other one darted out of his way, laughing.
“Look,” Poppy whispered loudly. “Outside the gates.”
“What?”
“They’re all coming. Sykes in the front, and Ben, Liam, Ethan. There’s Nick Montrachet and his brother and Pascal with David. Willow, too. She must have sneaked out. Gray. They keep coming, fanning out. All the paranormal families. Some I hardly recognize, I haven’t seen them for so long.”
And around the advancing army of friends, the same light that enveloped Poppy also glowed. She could see Sykes’s eyes, gleaming, deadly, as if he were only an arm’s length away. He swept ahead, looking from side to side, searching.
He was searching for her but she dared not draw attention to herself.
Poppy glanced at Wazoo and realized she couldn’t see their own people coming. But then she smiled and said, “There’s Nat. What is he doing?”
Poppy saw him, too. Hanging back, speaking into a collar mic, he crouched, absolutely still.
“He can’t come in here on his own,” Wazoo said, her voice rising.
“Don’t worry, he won’t.” She squeezed Wazoo’s arm. “Just be ready to run when and where I tell you.”
A yell split the night, a curdling yell. Poppy searched for the source and found it too quickly. Ward lay, bleeding from his head and unmoving. Bart stood over him, an arm that now glinted like a cylinder of dull metal raised in the air. He smashed it down on Ward again and the man’s body would never, Poppy knew, move again.
She felt an odd distress. In a way Ward Bienville was a pitiable figure, destined for failure. But she didn’t think this should have been his end. He wasn’t a killer.
Zibock took one step forward and felled Bart with a single stroke of his gold-studded hand. Parts flew, metal and flesh, in all direct
ions.
“This isn’t a good place to be,” Wazoo said.
Poppy was not in the mood to be flip. She feared for Sykes and the rest of them. Sykes, go back. Take them all back. It’s too dangerous.
Only his eyes moved, but toward her. She knew without any doubt that they looked at each other.
We can’t go back yet but we will win, Poppy. Zibock is the one who keeps the rest of them together. Wait there.
He would be invisible to make his move, Poppy remembered with relief. And Ben could do the same. But not the others as far as she knew.
Gradually noise built again among the crowd.
Zibock held up his arms as if in triumph, and the Embran roared approval.
Then Poppy saw Sykes start forward. Around him, the blue-green light pulsed and he advanced until he stood within feet of the giant.
Poppy’s heart twisted so hard she felt pain in her throat. “Can you see Sykes?” she asked Wazoo.
“Yes,” Wazoo said quietly. “I fear for him.”
Which meant they could all see Sykes. She started forward but Wazoo threw her arms around her. “Don’t. You’ll only make it all worse. Can they be shot?”
It took Poppy a second to realize Wazoo meant the Embran. “I don’t know. I doubt it.” Then she realized what Wazoo was thinking. “It can’t hurt for Nat to have a gun with him.”
Sykes put his fists on his hips and the light around him went out. At once Poppy realized that Zibock saw him. The light alone had made him invisible to other than those with special sight so all the other members of the families must also be invisible.
But now Sykes stood before Zibock, legs spread and flexed, his hair lifted away from his strong neck by the warm wind and his chest and shoulders massive inside a black T-shirt.
“You can’t do it on your own,” Poppy moaned.
Wazoo continued to hold her although Poppy knew she could shake her off if she had to.
Zibock began a step toward Sykes and paused, returning his huge foot to the ground. Poppy saw how Sykes fastened the full force of his gaze on the other man’s eyes. Sykes, utterly still, seemed to grow larger as she watched him.
Out of Sight Page 26